Robin Schmieder

Research Assistant to Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Nünning

Contact

Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

Institut für Anglistik / English Department
Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10 B 340a
35394 Giessen
Germany

E-Mail: robin.schmieder

Please note: Office hours can be scheduled via e-mail and will take place on Tuesdays from 1-2 pm.

About Me

Robin Schmieder is a doctoral researcher at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture and the International PhD Programme for literary and cultural studies at Justus Liebig University Giessen.

In his research project located at the interface of media studies, life writing studies, and narrative theory, he aims to develop a media-specific narratological model for the analysis of vlogs. His particular interest lies in the processes and functions of narrative self-making characteristic for vlogs and the remediation of other media genres constitutive for them.

Project Working Title: Vlogging the Self – A Narratology of Online Video Diaries

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ansgar Nünning & Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin

Research Interests

• Vlogs and Social Media Storytelling
• Narrative Theory
• Media Theory and Remediation
• Automediality, Autobiography, Narrative Self-Making

Memberships

• International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC)
• International PhD Programme "Literary and Cultural Studies" (IPP)
• GCSC Board of Directors (Staff Representative) (06/2022 – 06/2023)
• Editorial Team of On_Culture (01/2022 – 10/2023)
• Research Area 2: Cultural Narratologies (Speaker; 04/2021 – 12/2023

Publications

• Waiting for a Face Reveal that Never Comes – How VTubers Challenge our Understanding of Influencer Authenticity.
  Celebrity Studies, Special Issue: Social Media Influencers (Forthcoming, Spring 2024).
• Editorial – Present Futures. In: On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture 15 (2022)
• Editorial – Codes: Power and Subversion. In: On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture 14 (2022)
• How Lives Come to Matter – Rethinking Mediation and Materiality in Autobiography [Review of: Poletti, Anna: Stories of the Self: Life Writing after the Book. New York: New York University Press, 2020.]. In: KULT_online 63 (2021).

• With Jennifer Kiesewetter: Dystopian Realities. Investigating the Perception of and Interaction with Surveillance Practices. In: On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture 6 (2018). 

Presentations

• "Broadcast Yourself Revisited: Vlogging between Automediality and Narrative Self-Making."
  6 Dezember 2023, Cognition – Culture – Narrative, International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, Gießen (Co-Organizer)
• "Short Forms for Distracted Minds: Social Media, the Attention Economy, and Science Communication." 1 June 2023, Short Forms, Big Impact: Brevity as a Tool in Research, Teaching, and Communication, International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, Justus Liebig University Giessen.
• "Do Androids Dream of Electric Brand Deals? Virtual Influencers and the Manufacturing of Authenticity." 31 March 2023, Bath Spa University (Invited Talk).
  
• "How to Flip the Iceberg: Concepts and Approaches for Teaching Mediated Cultures." 24 January, 2023, University of Augsburg (Invited Talk).
• "'Face Reveal When?' On The Virtual Masquerade of VTubers." 30 June 2022, XII Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture: Masquerades, The Lisbon Consortium. (Winner of Best Paper Award)
• "Presenting (Research) Projects on YouTube." 28 March, 2022, Short Forms Beyond Borders, International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, Justus Liebig University Giessen.
• "Putting the ‘I‘ in Advertisable – On the Relation of the Attention Economy and Narrative Self-Making in Vlogs." 20 September, 2021, Anglistentag 2021, University of Passau.
• "Film Now, Live Later – Lejeune’s Brouillons de Soi and the Instability of Identity in YouTube Vlogs." 28 August, 2020, Narrating Lives: International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography, London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research.
• "Dystopian Realities." 6 July, 2017, Surveillance Cultures, International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, Justus Liebig University Giessen.

Teaching